3 minute read
BARTLEBY
All grown up
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When this column first appeared, my youngest was not yet three. He’s now 18. You won’t be surprised to learn that he’s changed a bit. Gone are the days when he sat behind me on my bike, pointing out dogs and buses as we tootled along. Now he’s all about seeing how fast an electric scooter will go, which is quite fast.
I’ve changed too, of course (mellowed? matured?) and so has the city. Over the years I’ve observed the evolution of our South Bristol street, as older people have sold up, making way for younger families. At one point, a couple of years ago, you could have mustered a full under-twos football team, with subs on the bench, just on our side of the road. There are more flats, more young people sharing houses, more cars, more colourful front doors. Let’s face it, there’s more money. around 90% of the houses have been done up over the past 15 years, some of them several times, and by ‘done up’ I mean properly renovated, not botched by fanatical DIYers.
I remember going into a neighbour’s house years ago and marvelling at the wide open spaces created via a series of amateur knock-throughs (and not an RSJ in sight). Only recently an electrician came to our house and discovered that a past resident had rewired a room by taping bits of cable together. I thought this showed enterprise, but the electrician wasn’t so keen. Now we have new wires and a new, functioning fuse box that isn’t even called a fuse box any more, which I suppose is progress.
Progress. It’s never a simple business, is it? I like our new, youthful street, but I miss the people who have gone –like the woman across the way who insisted on parking outside her own house and, if anyone else parked there, would shout; ‘I’m SELF-EMPLOYED!’ Or the kids who used to play tennis in the street, pausing (reluctantly) to let cars pass. Or the old lady who used to walk with infinite slowness up the road, with her equally aged dog.
Similar processes have been going on across the city as history slowly unfolds. My second or third column asked whether Bristol needed a mayor. At the time opinion was split 50-50, but I wonder what people think now. Personally I thought the present incumbent’s handling of the Colston statue furore last summer was exemplary –his dignity under pressure enhanced Bristol’s reputation as a liberal city that is not afraid to reassess its history. And that reputation was already pretty solid. I travel quite a lot for work and whenever people ask where I’m from they invariably answer, ‘Oh you live in Bristol –how lovely!’ or words to that effect.
The run-down former port city of the 1990s has blossomed into a modern metropolis that attracts tourists and businesses. There are, perhaps inevitably, downsides to this popularity. The cost of living is up. There’s more traffic. But there are opportunities. Bristol’s youthful entrepreneurs are breathing new life into neglected neighbourhoods as pedestrians and cyclists are given ever greater precedence in the city centre. This is part of a more general, often scarcely perceptible process, making the city more liveable. Every patch of green space seems to have a group of volunteers earnestly tending it, picking up rubbish and maintaining paths. The cycle network is gradually making more sense. Speed limits have come down.
Throughout its history Bristol has often had to respond to changing circumstances, from Elizabeth I’s war with Spain to the rise of containerisation in shipping. Today we have the Covid aftermath and Brexit to contend with, but I’m optimistic. We’ve made Bristol a place where people want to be, and it’s the people that make a city. ■
THE BRISTOL
MAGAZINE
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